The Guardian
by FriggyEsquire
Summary: /Discontinued/ Searching for sanctuary, Kagome, now leader of their close knit group, will not stop till they are safe. Even if it means crossing the sea... To the Land Of Shinobi.
1. The Story Unfolds

It's DTR again, with a new story for all my dedicated readers! And also, this will be a NarutoxInuyasha crossover.

BTW, you can vote for who you want to pair who with, only Miroku/Sango is a definite yes -shrugs-

I can't wait to see what you all think of it!

* * *

Kagome was tired, mentally and physically. She could barely think at some points, and she couldn't remember the last time that she had been to a village. Sango, Miroku, Shippo, Kirara and herself had been traveling from place to place for the past six months, never staying in a place more than a day, and she didn't know how much longer that she would be able to keep this up. The exhaustion was catching with her, and her friends could see it. And Kagome could see the exhaustion beginning to creep up on them too.

'If only we hadn't trusted him...'

--Flashback--

_Kagome looked up from the glittering, pink__ jewel in her hand at the carnage of the battle field around her. Demon carcass littered the ground, blood seeping into the soil, destined to be a space were no plants would ever grow again._

_She took shaky breaths and felt her numerous, but rather small wounds, throb in pain. She winced, but couldn't keep the goofy smile off her face. She giggled._

_It was finally over... Naraku was dead! All of the jewel shards were safe in Kagome's possession and all of her friends were alive! She couldn't ask for more._

_Well she could... _

_Inuyasha was limping over to her with Kikyo standing in the back round. The woman still had her stoic look on her face, but Inuyasha was smiling at her, and her heart lifted to see that smile._

_She stood up and hugged Inuyasha tightly. Looking at his face she saw hesitation in his eyes. She saw that he was struggling to say something. She looked down, hiding her own eyes from him. She had finally made her decision._

_"Inuyasha," she began, looking back up at him, her happiness mask firmly in place, smiling at him, "Go to Kikyo, she is the one who needs you now..."_

_Kagome almost sobbed when a look of relief passed over his face. She was being broken into pieces on the inside. She turned from Inuyasha and went to find Shippo, only to stop when she felt something rip into the flesh on her back. Growing pain welled up, coming from her back._

_She heard the screams of Sango, and Miroku yelling her name, but couldn't act as she fell to the ground, gasping in pain with the force of the pain that hit her. She turned her head slightly to see Inuyasha behind her with blood on his claws. Behind him, she saw Kikyo, a knowing smirk gracing her lips. Her eyes once again focused on the blood on Inuyasha's claws._

_'My blood...', she thought._

_She was beginning to become upset at herself for losing her bow, when Inuyasha charged at her, bloody claws raised. _

_Kagome clenched her eyes shut, waiting for intense pain again,__only to feel something lift her up by the scruff of her neck, with a firm grasp on her scarf . She felt herself be dropped into caring arms, and opened her eyes to see Kirara in standing in front of her protectively, and, looking up, she saw that she was in Miroku's arms._

_" Lady Kagome? Lady Kagome!?" he said in a worried voice, she wasn't able to answer, however, as she had fallen unconscious._

--Flashback end--

She had woken up later, after her friends had escaped from Inuyasha and Kikyo. After she had woken up, Sango had pulled her to the side and told her all that Inuyasha had said while she was unconscious.

Kikyo and himself had been planning for a long time to betray them. Every time that Kagome saw Inuyasha leave to go see her, it wasn't just to do so. It was also to plot.

Inuyasha was helping Kikyo to kill Kagome so Kikyo could get the rest of her soul back. He just didn't seem to understand that Kagome was her reincarnation, and that Kikyo wasn't supposed to be alive at all.

Kagome had had an epiphany that day. After thinking for a long time, mulling over all that had happened in the past three years, she had decided one thing that she was sure that would help everyone.

It was time to stop going after Inuyasha and understand that he had never felt the same way, heck he had never even cared at all for her. Her feelings for him had brought everyone down. So she decided to get rid of those feelings.

A while afterwards, Kagome found out that Kikyo had permanently sealed the well, so she couldn't escape to her own time. When she heard this, Kagome had thought, 'It's all for nothing though, Kikyo.'

A while before the last battle with Naraku, Kagome had returned home to find her house empty of all life. Literally.

A man had come into the house and had murdered her family. Kagome had seen her mothers body and had broken down, screaming for help. Then she had seen Souta and Grampa, and bolted.

Kagome had rushed back to the past, seeking solace in Inuyasha. She had been so naive then. But the good thing about this, was that when she had emerged on the other side of the well, Inuyasha was nowhere to be found, and Kagome had only told Sango and Miroku what had hapened. Inuyasha hadn't noticed how depressed she was, most likely due to the fact that Kikyo was on his mind.

Sango and Kirara were also grieving. During the battle, Kohaku appeared and battled with Sango. But he couldn't bring himself to keep up the charade that he had been in place since he had regained his memories.

He had apologized to his big sister.

Kohaku had then ripped the jewel shard out of his back of his own accord after seeing what Naraku was doing. He had given Kagome the shard with his last bit of his energy.

Miroku was trying his best to comfort his wife and his friend, and it seemed to be working. The whole group was, slowly but surely, healing.

The friends now shared a bond, and for that Kagome had to thank Inuyasha. If he had not attacked her, Miroku, Sango and herself wouldn't have become as close as they were. She might still be living in a fantasy of love from the one she thought she cared for.

But now, the two were her siblings and Shippo was her son.

Speaking of Shippo, in all the time she had spent with him, he had grown. He now looked to be four or five years old by human standards. Kagome had also found out that at a certain age, full-blooded fox demons were able to change into a human form or a kitsune form.

She had her new family, and she wasn't about to let them be taken away from her.

* * *

Sesshomaru could be a very patient person depending on what mood he was in, and right now, he was about ready to go postal on the fist thing to cross his path. Even if he was the Lord of the Western Lands, he had a soft spot for anyone he truly cared about, especially Kagome, who he had dubbed his 'Imouto'. The fact that the problem in question involved her made him all the more furious.

He had just learned that his _dumb ass_ little brother had disappeared, and that he was said to have killed his group that he was traveling with.

He immediately set out to find his brother, and kill him.

Sesshomaru was once a cruel, brutal and all around mean person. That was before he had seen his brother after fifty years, meeting his adoptive daughter, Rin, and to top it all of, finding a little sister in Kagome.

It was as if he had done a one-eighty. Hearing that his younger brother had killed her made Sesshomaru very, _very_ unstable.

So without further adieu, Sesshomaru left Rin in the care of Jaken and Ah-un and sat himself on top of the highest tree in the forest to search for his Imouto's scent.

Ten minutes later, Sesshomaru was speeding toward the north-east with his daughter, retainer, and steed at his side.

* * *

The crackling of the fire awoke Kagome that night. She had been given a few hours off of watch when Miroku had insisted that she take a break and sleep some of her weariness off. When she awoke however she was met with a sight that surprised her.

She saw Sango and Miroku asleep as well and saw Kirara in her large form standing watch.

She slipped out of her sleeping bag slowly, not wanting to awake Shippou from his well deserved rest. Silently she walked over to Kirara and sat down. Lifting up her hand and, she petted Kirara on her head.

"Kirara, I think we will soon have to stop all of this traveling and do something other than run. With Kikyo giving Inuyasha power, we won't be able to fight him and Kikyo without one or all of us dying... What should I do?", after she said all this she buried her head into Kirara's fur.

Kirara whined in sadness at her, knowing how much confusion and sadness her other master was feeling.

Then Kirara nudged Kagome's head, and when Kagome lifted her face out of Kirara's fur, the fire Neko turned her head to the north-eastern part of the ocean that was not to far from where they were camping.

Kagome looked out that way and began to think. She had never seen the ocean before coming to the past and she loved the sounds. The waves rushing up the sand to splash against the rocks, the smell of salt spray erupting from the waves. She loved the ocean and wished she could have gone to it in her time...and that's when it came to her!

In her world their were different continents, so why shouldn't there be any here!

That's it! Miroku had mentioned a 'mainland' a while ago, so the people in this time knew about it. If those continents had been discovered in the past fifty years, Kikyo and Inuyasha wouldn't know about it! Kikyo had been dead and Inuyasha was stuck to a tree!

Now she had to make a plan. She would have to find some sort of raft or something, and food! She couldn't forget anything, bandages, clothes, provisions. Kagome was elated at finally having a plan.

She turned to Kirara and wrapped her arms around the Neko's neck. "Thanks Kirara!", she said affectionately.

Standing up she walked back to were Sango and Miroku were sleeping, seeing that the first rays of light were peeking over the ocean's shore and that the couple was waking up.

She began to roll up her sleeping bag while waiting for her companions to wake up enough to hear her plan.

The next few days were going to be crazy...

* * *

I hope that the first chapter was to your liking. I love writing now! The length of my chapters is getting so much more awesome! This is defiantly my longest chapter in all of mine.

As I said you can vote for the pairings, except that Miroku ans Sango is already a sure fire pairing. The votes for who Kagome can be with are,

Kakashi, Kouga, Asuma, Itachi, MAYBE Sasori, but defiantly NOT Sesshomaru. They are brother/sister in this fic. You can choose them or another guy that I can't remember. They must be a respective age, so no Jiraiya and Orochimaru or anyone that much younger than her. My favorite right now is ZabuzaxKagome. Remember, Zabuza was like thirty in the Manga/Anime so when Naruto was the age when Kagome finds him, Zabuza's like twenty, only 2 years older than Kagome. If you choose Zabuza it won't happen until the wave arc and Zabuza will have to be loyal to Konoha, got it?

You may also choose who Naruto is paired with. The only thing is that there is no Naruto with an older woman, like Kurenai or Anko. He must be with any one of these girls:

Hinata, Temari, TenTen, Ino, or FemHaku if you want. I could do a harem only if its two girls, though, so you can give me your first two choices.

Please use constructive criticism when you review as well. If you don't like it at least tell me why you don't and it can't be just an opinion, you have to have facts, please?

R&R


	2. The Plan

This story hasn't been as greatly acknowledged as my others, but for sure, the chapters ahead will make you love it. I can't wait to see what you think about it.

Thanks to Bobboky for being my first reviewer

Sorry for the wait, btw. My school likes to torture us by making us take a test each month. I have three tests in the same week! Lucky I'm gifted or I'd probably be dead!

Here is the second chapter of 'The Guardian'

Disclaimer: I don't own it -.-

* * *

Miroku and Sango awoke to see Kagome also awake and in the middle of cooking breakfast. Something was different though, and the two couldn't think of what it was. It was then that they noticed that she had a smile on her face, and her mood seemed different as well. The two smiled, knowing that she was finally happy about something after six months.

Hearing them Kagome turned around and said, "Good morning, guys!"

Sango stood up, a happy look on her face. "Why do you seem so happy today, Kagome?"

If it was possible, the grin on Kagome's face grew wider. She replied as she took the rice and curry off the portable stove, "It's all thanks to Kirara actually! I finally got an idea of what to do. We finally will be able to stop running if this works!"

Sango stopped in the process of tyieng up her hair, and Miroku paused in the act of readjusting his prayer beads.

The two and Shippou, who had woken up and heard the conversation, looked at each other with surprise, pride and happiness at what Kagome had said. She was finally getting back to her old self despite everything going on.

As they sat around the fire and ate Kagome asked, "Miroku, before we visited Fire island, you said something about a mainland. Can you tell me what you know about it?"

Miroku blinked and said, "Well, the mainland is a place called The Elemental Countries, and it's apparently were shinobi originate. There are nine countries in all, called The Land of Fire, The Land of Earth, and so on with the elements of Fire, Earth, Rain, Mist, Lightning, Grass, Waterfall, Wind, Waves, Tea and Snow.

"There is one great village in each of the countries, except for the Land of Tea, and the greatest is Konohagakure no Soto, in the Land of Fire." He continued, "Each great village has one supreme leader called the Hokage for Konoha, Raikage for Kumo, and so on. The Kages are the Greatest shinobi in the village, the ones with the greatest power, knowledge and skill.

"The shinobi that live in each village protect it and carry out missions to earn the village and themselves a living. The ninja don't like to reveal their secrets, but in my travels I have learned that they harness a power called 'Chakra', which is a mix of spiritual and physical power. They use this power to create attacks. The three styles of attacking made by using chakra are ninjutsu, which are mostly offensive attacks, genjutsu, which is illusions, and tai-jutsu, which is the style of fighting with your physical power and chakra is used very little.

"Each ninja is entered into an academy at the age of nine to learn the basics. At twelve they become ranked genin. As they progress in their power, they can gain rank. The ranks are, genin, chunnin, jounin, sannin and Kage.

"I know a lot more but I need to know exactly what _you_ need to know, Kagome." he finished.

Kagome wasn't answering as she was deep in thought. Thinking over all that she had just learned, she noticed that nothing that she had ever known about shinobi had applied to what she had heard.

Eventually she said, "How long ago was the continent discovered?"

Sango, surprisingly, was the one who answered. "The continent was discovered about forty five years ago. Kagome why do you need to know about all this?"

Suddenly Kagome brightened up and let out a yell of triumph. This startled the three that were listening. After Kagome had calmed down, she sat in front of them with a happy smile on her face. She began explaining.

"What if we go to that continent?", she said. Seeing the alarmed looks on their faces, she continued, "If the continent was discovered forty five years ago, then Inuyasha and Kikyo wouldn't know about it! Kikyo was dead and Inuyasha was sealed to the God Tree! We would be able to hide their for a while before they found out and in that time we might be able to learn how to fight like the shinobi! AND," she said, seeing their looks, "I might be able to protect the Shikon jewel more easily there." (AN- sorry forgot to mention, she still has the jewel)

"I think that is a reasonable idea, Imouto."

Kagome started and whirled around to see Sesshomaru standing their with a relieved look on his face.

"Shessho-nii!", Kagome jumped up and barreled into his mid-section, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist.

Sango and Miroku were also surprised. "Sesshomaru-sama?"

Sesshomaru looked to Miroku and answered the unspoken question. "I heard a rumor that Inuyasha had killed all of his friends and had joined a vengeful soul in her 'reign of destruction.' I was going to find Inuyasha when I found you all.

"In other matters, I have been to the Elemental continent before. I am acquaintances with a demon lord there."

Kagome looked up from her hug and asked, "A demon lord?"

Sesshomaru answered, "Not just a demon lord, but the Lord of all demons, Kyuubi no Kitsune."

Shippou perked up at that and said, "Really? A Kitsune?"

Sesshomaru looked at the kit with his usual passive face and said, "Yes, and I believe he is still on the continent."

Shippou jumped into the air from his spot on Miroku's shoulders and yelled, "Yatta! Then I'm all for going to the shinobi place!"

Sango smiled and said, "I also think that this is a good idea. The demon slayers way of fighting and the shinobi arts are not so different. I would like to go there!"

All of them looked expectantly toward Miroku, and he sighed saying, "I... I guess it would be an enlightening experience and an opportunity to check out their spiritual culture..."

Kagome cheered and Miroku sighed. This would be a long week...

* * *

It was later, when Sango, Miroku and Shippou had fallen asleep, that Kagome began telling Sesshomaru all that had happened.

After she had finished her monologue of the past six months, the Tai-youkai began to speak.

"So... the un-dead miko is giving Inuyasha power?"

Kagome nodded. Since Kikyo was dead, she was able to call upon her soul collectors to give the souls of deceased warriors to Inuyasha. And Inu youkai are sensitive to the nature of souls, so he was able to absorb all of the souls powers.

And as an added bonus, with Kikyo's power shielding Inuyasha, Kagome couldn't fight against him, and neither of her friends could for that matter. But it didn't change the fact that they didn't really want to kill Inuyasha, even if it was their only choice.

Sesshomaru could see all of these emotions in his Imouto's eyes, he had once said they the eyes were like a doorway into the soul, and he could see everything clearly. He couldn't run off and kill Inuyasha. Kagome might never forgive him.

Sesshomaru knew then and there that his brother was a foolish person. His friends, even after betraying them, wouldn't try and kill him.

And that was why Sesshomaru was helping Kagome and her friends to go to the Elemental Countries.

* * *

Far away, in a forest clearing, a woman stood regally. She was wearing the traditional priestess clothing, and carried a bow on her back. She had been reveling in the peaceful silence when she sensed a presence behind her. The woman didn't move, knowing who the person was. She soon felt arms wrap around her waist and a nose bury itself in her hair, inhaling her scent. The woman smiled, 'Soon my little incarnation... soon."

* * *

I want to thank the people who reviewed. Bobboky, S-Wanderer999, TSBasilisk, Kento Namikaze! I REALLY need ideas for my stories! Please, me needs help!

OH, and also, the votes so far are as follow.

**For Naruto, **

Hinata - 2

Temari - 1

Fem Haku - 1

Ino - 0

Ten Ten - 0

**Harem votes- **

Hinata and Temari - 1

Hinata and Fem Haku - 2

**For Kagome, **

Zabuza - 1

Itachi - 1

Kouga - 1

Kakashi - 1

Iruka - 1

Hayate - 1

So basically these are the main runners for Kagome, but if you have a vote for someone not on the list, you can still vote for them.

Remember, if you've already voted, you can vote again in another review. You can choose between Harem or no Harem. Please vote for one or the other.

And to TSBasilisk, you put up a very good point about Kouga, and on a somewhat similar note, Kouga _will_ be in the story, but as a lover or a brother is what you all have to choose.

And as for the Harem, if you've voted for it, please don't vote again. I will need at _least _twenty votes if I'm gonna do a harem, as I've never done one before.


End file.
